One of the scariest real-world threats has now invaded World of Warcraft! Reports are coming in from all over the internet that something has gone terribly wrong within the confines of this extremely popular MMORPG. It seems that characters are dying from an honest-to-goodness, unintentional plague that is spreading through in-game cities at an alarming rate.
Internet sources trace the problem back to the 1.7 patch and a new area known as Zul'Gurub. MMORPG.com reported the update back on on Sept. 13th, and had this to say about the new area:
Zul'Gurub
Hidden within the jungles of Stranglethorn, an ancient Troll city full of peril has been uncovered. Do you have what it takes to delve into its mysteries with a band of hardy explorers? There's only one way to find out! Zul'Gurub is a high-level, 20-man raid instance with 120 new rare and epic items to uncover. Adventure awaits!
What we could not have possibly known at the time was that this would turn out to be a problem area, not only for players, but for the developers as well. According to Shacknews, the illness originated when, within the scenario, players are confronted by Hakkar, an evil NPC who carries the debuff "Corrupted Blood". This is what one poster had to say about the origin of the incident:
Here's the skinny: Blizzard adds in a new instance, Zul'Gurub. Inside is the god of blood, Hakkar. Well, when you fight him he has a debuff called corrupted Blood. It does like 250-350 damage to players and affects nearby players. The amazing thing is SOME PLAYERS have brought this disease (and it is a disease) back to the towns, outside of the instance. It starts spreading amongst the general population including npcs, who can out generate the damage. Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die).
Apparently, and again, according to unofficial internet courses, GMs have tried to quarantine characters carrying this virus. Their efforts, however, have met with somewhat limited success.
Blizzard Entertainment has yet to comment on this incident on their official website. Rest assured that whenever official word becomes available, we here at MMORPG.com will bring it to you as soon as possible.
